Luis Suarez Loses Appeal for Biting Chiellini

CNN – He may be on the verge of signing for Barcelona, but it looks like Luis Suarez won’t be returning to football action anytime soon after FIFA upheld his ban for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup in Brazil.

The world governing body suspended the Uruguayan bad boy for nine international games and ruled him out of any football activity for four months after the incident in late June.

Unless Suarez wins an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Thursday’s ruling means he’s sure to miss the start of the European football season.

An appeal to Swiss-based CAS has yet to be confirmed.

“The FIFA Appeal Committee has decided to reject the appeals lodged by both the Uruguayan player Luis Suarez and the Uruguayan FA, and to confirm the decision rendered by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee on 25 June 2014 in its entirety,” FIFA said in a statement on its website.

“The terms of the decision taken by the FIFA Appeal Committee were communicated to the player and the Uruguayan FA today.”